Compositions for styling the hair are known, such as, for example, hair spray compositions, hair gels and mousses, hair volumizing compositions, hair smoothing creams, lotions, serums, oils, clays, etc. The goals of many hair styling compositions include to hold or fix the hair in a particular shape, to impart or increase volume of the hair, and/or to smooth the hair, e.g. to decrease or eliminate the appearance of frizz.
Latexes are known for use in hair styling processes. However, the application to hair of these latexes may cause the hair to feel dry and sticky. Moreover, attempts to use latex film-formers along with oily protecting agents such as UV agents and/or antioxidants, which may be desired to protect the hair against UV and other environmental damage, have led to unsatisfactory results.
Hair styling compositions comprising oils, such as UV agents and/or antioxidants, are typically prepared as oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions, comprising an oily phase dispersed in an aqueous phase. However, conventional O/W emulsion products for the hair can also have drawbacks, such as an oily feel and lack of stability. In order to avoid some of these drawbacks, additional components such as surfactants may be added to stabilize the emulsion by creating a gelled matrix which serves to set, within its three-dimensional network, the globules of the oil phase, thereby mechanically maintaining the emulsion.
Traditionally, however, the presence of components such as surfactants and thickeners have limited the options for preparing O/W emulsions. For example, thickeners may limit the galenic form of the composition, and surfactants may limit the way in which the composition is prepared, i.e. it must be prepared with heating, thereby precluding heat-sensitive components that cannot withstand heating during the processing.
However, it has now been discovered that a stable O/W emulsion can be prepared by providing latex film forming polymer particles at the interface of the water phase and the oil phase, without forming a continuous closed capsule around the oily particle or droplet. The latex polymer particles can provide suitable stability to the O/W emulsion, even in the absence of a surfactant and/or thickener.
According to various embodiments, O/W emulsions comprising (a) an aqueous dispersion of particles of at least one latex chosen from an acrylate latex, a polyurethane latex, or a silicone latex, and (b) an oil phase, wherein the aqueous dispersion of particles of at least one latex is present in the O/W emulsion in an amount sufficient to stabilize the O/W emulsion, are provided. Hair styling and/or shaping compositions comprising the O/W emulsions, methods of making the emulsions, and methods of styling and/or shaping the hair with the O/W emulsion or a composition comprising the O/W emulsion are also provided.